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An online journal about visual art, the urban landscape and design. Mary Louise Schumacher, the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic, leads the discussion and a community of writers contribute to the dialogue.

Donovan owes TRUE Skool an apology

Political theater is one thing. It’s what Milwaukeeans have come to expect from Ald. Robert G. Donovan. But to look a group of young people in the eye and call their art and their efforts at bettering the community and themselves “crap” is something else altogether. »Read Full Blog Post

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I happen to know Bob Donovan, and I know that he honestly cares about his district and its constituents and the city as a whole...(as Public Safety Chair and member of the Anti-Graffiti Committee, his duties do extend to the whole city). You may not like way he communicates, but many of us do...he's the one guy out there who is willing to stand up and make his voice heard on issues of concern to his constituents. The reason he raised his voice in this particular case is that he was treated rudely and told he's out of touch with his constituents...believe me, he is not. Furthermore, it was the landlord of the building who called the "art" garbage, not Donovan. If it was truly "art" why did True Skool remove it so quickly? Why don't you insist that it be reinstalled? It's art isn't it? I applaud Ald. Donovan...keep up the good work and the fight!

the only thing Donovan is exhibiting is childish behavior. as for tagging and graffiti art (yes it is an art form, a SKILLED art form at that), you may not want it, but a lot of people do. it IS a valid form of expression, and yes it is mostly found in inner cities. but not always. do you know how difficult it is to use spray paint as your medium, what with the wind? as a painter trained in some of the finest art schools in america, it's difficult.people thought that impressionism was gross and wrong when it first made the scene. every new form or style of art brings out naysayers. these are not people who are open enough to learn how to read art, they just don't bother. i betcha ten to one than these previous comments were made by people in their boring, fenced in communities in the suburbs.

please stop making a new form of ART 'the other'. you all should be ashamed. i'm with ML. this is abusive behavior and THOUGHT on the part of adults. please remember that if something is not your asethtic, it is not automatically wrong. and also, even though you are a politician, you certainly don't speak for all. so what exactly is your agenda Donovan? there is a broader agenda here, i guarantee it.go live your safe life in the suburbs. leave 'the other' to create. it's what we've always, as artists done. nothing new here.

"What Donovan and the Department of Neighborhood Services are doing is condemning an entire genre of art, claiming that graffiti art is itself a cause of crime."

Yeah, so? Let's call a spade a spade. The vast majority of graffiti is in fact vandalism against personal and public property (yes -- this is a crime). Also, taggers are constantly competing with each other like animals marking their territory. Once something is tagged, every other tagger in town has to come and make their mark as well.

By heaping accolades on a rare, legal piece of graffiti art, it only encourages more vandalism by those who don't have a billboard to work with. Instead they choose the side of someone's house. How much property had to get vandalized for this "artist" to get as good as he is?

Members of my family owned a business on the south side in the Donovan's neighborhood until about 7 years ago. It would get tagged with graffiti every couple of months and we would have to go out and repaint again and again. I think that if there were a graffiti mural on the side of the building there wouldn't be so much tagging. I would much rather have graffiti art cover a building than tagging.

Random: The reason the art was removed was that it was always intended to have been removed: it was a temporary exhibit. As for who called the art "garbage": TRUE Skool had the owner's permission, and it really doesn't matter what the owner thought of the actual art - both because TS had permission, and because the deal wasn't "you can paint something only if I like it." Finally, we only have Donovan's word for it that the owner called it "garbage" - and since he lied about the permission, I'm disinclined to accept his word for it anyway.

Mary Louise,Thank you for your article. With your words, you showed more class and respect to Donovan than he has shown to the children of our own community. As a life-long Milwaukeean and the first to always defend my hometown, I was truly disappointed that a Milwaukee alderman would so hatefully criticize a non-profit organization that uses creativity and street smarts to help at-risk kids become more responsible for their community. What those kids did that day was legal, approved by the building's owner, and in my opinion, a beautiful expression of art. We will never be able to teach the youth of our world a thing about personal responsibility until we can speak in their language, in a way that they can understand. Not through yelling and pointing fingers. It looks like Donovan is truly passionate about our community. But instead of using it to create more hatred and division among the people of my city, I ask him to turn that passion into more constructive solutions for the children of Milwaukee.

2fs: "...was always intended to have been removed..." Really? And whose word do we have on that? True Skool's? Sorry, I'm disinclined to accept their word on that. And, Shana, I'll admit to living in Greenfield (just across the line from Milwaukee), but Ald. Donovan lives right in the middle of his district, so I think he's more than tuned in to what's going on there.

The very FACT that there were numerous "tagging" incidents reported nearby shortly after the mural went up demonstrates without question that this was a stupid thing to endorse. Call it anything you want, after-all some people call a Crucifix in urine "art", but to defend the placement of this mural in that neighborhood is ludicrous.

Ms. Schumacher, perhaps if your fashionable side of town was plagued by the huge volume of graffiti "art" as the southside is, you'd have a completely different perspective. Stop looking down your nose at we, the evidently unwashed masses that oppose this crap.

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